On Tuesday 27 April 2021, the Hungarian Parliament voted to transfer control of 11 state universities to quasi-public foundations, a move that can, and most likely will, have a lasting impact on the Hungarian education system. This decision falls in line with Viktor Orbán’s political legacy, which has become increasingly autocratic since his ascension to power in 2010. In direct violation of articles 19 and 26 of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this decision will not only produce domestic implications, but will set a regional precedent for a part of the world that is becoming increasingly illiberal in nature.

Viktor Orbán’s party, Fidesz, was not always the far-right group it is today. In fact, when it was initially founded in 1988, it was a liberal youth party opposing communism. Not until its landslide victory in 2010, when it joined forces with the Christian Democratic People’s Party and shifted rightwards, did Fidesz attain the two-thirds supermajority that it still holds today. This majority is ultimately what enables the rapid backsliding of the Hungarian political landscape which has played out over the past 11 years.    

Orbán initially began his nationalist campaign by focusing on purging the government of all of its remnants of the communist era. Then, he turned his focus to the detriments of foreign migration. He emphasised the need to “keep Hungary Hungarian” demographically, protect the Christian heritage of Europe, and keep the cultural history of Hungary alive. This ideology quickly permeated into the education system, which began teaching about the “dangers” of “different cultures coexisting”. 

As the migration crisis of 2015 took on a larger role in EU policy, Orbán used his supermajority to do everything in his power to fundamentally alter the Constitution in his party’s favour. The crisis was a perfect opportunity to play on the public’s fears through fear-mongering tactics and limiting alternate viewpoints. After the reelection in 2018, pro-government media released what essentially served as a blacklist of names of hundreds of people who were working for Orbán’s proclaimed enemy: George Soros. 

Hungarian-born billionaire George Soros is best known for funding pro-Western, liberal NGOs, such as his own Open Society Foundations. Siding with Soros in Orbán’s Hungary is essentially equated to an attack on Hungary itself, an assault on the nation and its people. Soros opened his own university, the Central European University (CEU), in 1991, which quickly attained international recognition and prestige, particularly in the field of social science. Despite being a private, independent university, CEU was forced to relocate from Budapest to Vienna in 2019 when the government increased control over academic research.   

Retaliatory actions by the Orbán government have seen increased support for pro-government artistic and educational endeavours, while NGOs that stand in opposition have lost funding altogether. Other detrimental actions, like nationalising political advertising, banning same-sex couples from adopting children, and threatening the independence of the judiciary, are also unlikely to be touched by future governments, because they will lack the two-thirds majority to make Constitutional changes.

In this way, Orbán’s latest move to transfer control of state universities is in line with all his other decisions. The first board, which is positioned to head the new university “foundations,” is composed of all Fidesz supporters who will ultimately appoint like-minded thinkers in the future. The decision is positioned to impact roughly 70% of all university students in Hungary. Further, the government will allocate EU funding, which was given as part of the Economic Recovery Package for the pandemic, to these foundations as a part of an effort to modernise Hungarian universities. Functionally, this move allows Fidesz to obtain lasting power over the public university system. This power will extend beyond any elections that threaten its central power, which it has only further solidified through power grabs during the pandemic.      

Finally, despite its origins, Fidesz has ironically brought Hungary closer to communist nations, like China and an authoritarian Moscow, which not long ago occupied Budapest, than ever before. From vaccine diplomacy with both China and Russia, to prioritising a new Chinese university over domestic institutions, Hungary’s alliances have shifted further away from Europe and closer to the East. As more and more European nations choose illiberal democracy and nationalism, Hungary’s descent into autocracy can serve as a harbinger for what could be to come.

Arianna studied International Relations at the University of Southern California. While completing her B.A., she published an article entitled “Experience with and Perceptions of Immigrants in Italy” in the Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference Journal and was awarded Best Paper at the Claremont-UC Conference on the EU. She has since published articles with the National Democratic Institute and The New Global Order. Her focus is on Human Rights in Southern and Central/Eastern Europe.

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